The Sacramento Bee reported yesterday that Southwest Airlines removed a standby passenger from a plane after boarding in order to make room for a late-arriving passenger who required two seats but had only purchased one. So why didn’t Southwest follow its own famed “Passenger of Size” policy and make the passenger unable to fit in a single seat wait? It’s sort of a reverse of Kevin Smith’s famous removal from a flight on Southwest this past February. [More]

Over a quarter-million passengers were bumped from flights in the past eight months, a number that is set to grow as airlines try to boost anemic profits by slashing fleets. The Department of Transportation requires airlines to compensate bumped passengers with cash or vouchers, but savvy passengers can leverage their situation to negotiate heftier payments…

Good news for travelers: If you’re bumped from a flight, you soon may be eligible to get up to $800 in compensation. This is up from the previous max of $400, an amount that had not been raised since 1978. [CNNMoney via Consumer World Blog]

An editor over at Jaunted has perfected a strategy for hassel-free airline bumping. We all know that we can grab some pretty nice rewards if we give up our seat on an overbooked airplane, but we’re never in a position to do so.